The Chaplin Collection, Vol. 1 (Modern Times / The Great Dictator / The Gold Rush / Limelight)

Location: Home » video » General » The Chaplin Collection, Vol. 1 (Modern Times / The Great Dictator / The Gold Rush / Limelight)

Similar Items:

•	The Chaplin Collection, Vol. 2 (City Lights / The Circus / The Kid / A King in New York / A Woman of Paris / Monsieur Verdoux / The Chaplin Revue / Charlie - The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin)
•	Chaplin (15th Anniversary Edition)
•	Charlie Chaplin - 51 Features
•	The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection
•	The Marx Brothers Collection (A Night at The Opera/A Day at The Races/A Night in Casablanca/Room Service/At the Circus/Go West/The Big Store)

Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com essential video
Charles Spencer Chaplin, the London ragamuffin who became the most popular man of his era, gets his proper due with this deluxe package of four classics. Each two-disc set begins with an excellent new digital transfer of the picture and remastered sound. The Gold Rush, Chaplin's 1925 masterpiece, puts the Little Tramp into the snowy Yukon; it includes such celebrated sequences as the "Dance of the Rolls" and Chaplin's uncanny metamorphosis into a large chicken. Both the original silent version and Chaplin's re-edited 1942 release (for which he added his own musical score and narration) are included. A documentary on "Chaplin Today" looks at the film through the eyes of Burkina Faso director Idrissa Ouedraogo. Modern Times (1936) is Chaplin's peerless take on the machine age; his ballet on the assembly line remains one of the great images of modern man driven mad by mechanization. The DVD extras include a couple of (somewhat extraneous) vintage promotional films about the wonderful world of mass production, the famous Chaplin composition "Smile" performed by Liberace (huh?), and penetrating comments on the film by the Belgian filmmakers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne.

The Great Dictator is Chaplin's comic undressing of Hitler, boldly released in 1940. An absorbing documentary, "The Tramp and the Dictator," details production of the film, and color footage shot on the set provides fascinating behind-the-scenes material. Limelight (1952), in which he plays a fading vaudevillian, is Chaplin's magnificent elegy on his own career. Extras include a deleted scene, the entire Oscar-winning score, and Bernardo Bertolucci on the film's emotional impact: "I don't cry often, but here my tears flow." Each film has a loving introduction by Chaplin biographer David Robinson--but newcomers to Chaplin should watch the movies first, as the extras give away endings and the best jokes. --Robert Horton

Product Description
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 10/05/2004

Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Finally, Chaplin done right! July 15, 2003
58 out of 59 found this review helpful

I've never seen any of these films look more beautiful, and the packaging and extras are excellent! "The Gold Rush" is especially desirable as, previously, we have had to choose between the official release of the "sound" version with Chaplin's distracting narration and very uneven releases of the PD silent version. Here we have both the sound version (interesting as Chaplin's last word on the piece) and the artistically superior silent version, restored by Brownlow! "Modern Times" is a gorgeous restoration of a universally accessible masterpiece (here Chaplin has his cake and eats it too, working his social satire in seamlessly with comedy and character), and includes many amusing extras, including a few cut scenes, a clip of Liberace performing "Smile" (!), and "Por Primera Vez," a 1960s documentary on a travelling theatre, which sets up in a remote Mexican village where most of the inhabitants have never seen a motion picture and screens, yes, "Modern Times" to an enthusiastic audience. "The Great Dictator" is often hilarious (especially the scenes with Jack Oakie) and if the message gets in the way of the art at times, this can be easily forgiven considering the importance of the message. "The Great Dictator" includes the excellent TCM documentary, "The Tramp and the Dictator," much superior to the documentaries on the other discs, as well as Sydney Chaplin's color home movies of the production. The best thing I can say about "Limelight" is that at least Buster Keaton appears (briefly) and at least Chaplin doesn't actually preach (even if he does weep, smirk, and philosophize to trying lengths; I have often thought that Chaplin put off speaking so long because he had a feeling that, if he once started, he would be unable to bring himself to shut up). Still, "Limelight" is (at a bare minimum) of great historic interest, and, if you buy the set, you can consider it as being thrown in for free, so there's no reason not to. This set is required viewing for human beings.

5 out of 5 stars

SILENCE IS GOLDEN IN THIS STUNNING BOX SET October 5, 2003
45 out of 46 found this review helpful

Without a doubt, Charlie Chaplin is the reigning king of silent comedy. His impeccibly limber gesturing, sense of timing and evocative facial features have made him a landmark artist, a masterful film maker and one of the greatest talents to ever grace the silver screen. What more can be said; does it get any better than the little tramp?!? And now, Warner Home Video proves that it does, indeed get better; a lot, lot better. Having had to contend with poorly transferred, badly worn VHS and primative bootlegged DVD copies for years, the home video audience at last gets to witness Charlie in his best video incarnation ever! This box set features four classics from the Chaplin legacy; Modern Times, The Gold Rush, The Great Dictator and Limelight. In each case, Chaplin illustrates the art of making movies as no one before or since. Great fun!
THE TRANSFER: No expense has been spared in making each film sparkle as never before. The gray scale is incredibly rich and beautifully balanced. Blacks are deep. Contrast levels show off Charlie's make up. Fine detail is gloriously realized. Minor edge enhancement and some pixelization do occur but nothing to distract or even hint that anything but absolute care has been taken to make these films look as good as they possibly can. Almost all age related artifacts are gone. Truly, I can't say enough to recommend these transfers. The audio is mono and nicely balanced.
EXTRAS: Each disc comes with a brief featurette on Chaplin's legacy and some interesting supplimental extras including outtakes in some cases and interviews in others.
BOTTOM LINE: No more to be said: don't walk - RUN to your nearest video retailer and make the Chaplin Collection a part of your home video library!

5 out of 5 stars

My grandfather would be proud... August 25, 2004
23 out of 23 found this review helpful

My grandfather, as big a Chaplin fan as they came, never got over the narrated version of The Gold Rush. It wasn't the narration that bothered him as much as the way that "they had to change the ending." A romantic at heart, he missed the original's softer closing. Every time the film aired on television or was re-released at the theater, he looked for the silent version with the original ending. He never found it. The re-release seemed to be a constant thorn in his side. Sort of like the 1940's version of Greedo shooting first. I hope my grandpa is looking down from above, because the original version of the film is included in this standout DVD collection. If you liked Charlie's light-hearted narration, that version's here too (I think both versions are great). And so are four beautifully restored Charlie Chaplin films. The hilarious Modern Times. The controversial The Great Dictator (Chaplin's first "talkie"). The oftentimes overlooked -- and underrated -- Limelight. And quite possibly the most well-liked film of Chaplin's career, The Gold Rush. There aren't as many outtakes as a Chaplin fan would want, but that's because most were lost or destroyed. The outtakes that are included are as fun as the "little fellow" himself. I'm guessing the films look nearly as good as they did when they were first projected onto the gigantic movie house screens of the 1920s, 30s and 40s. This collection takes you back to the early days of film and reminds you that when most were taking baby steps, Mr. Chaplin was moving cinematic storytelling ahead by leaps and bounds. My grandfather would be proud.

5 out of 5 stars

Four of the best August 28, 2004
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

Four movies. Three comedies and one drama. These are not merely four of Charlie Chaplin's greatest films; they are four of the greatest films of all time. They're funny, they're sad, but most of all they're passionate. Chaplin has often been criticized for putting too much sentimentality into his films, and it's a fair complaint. But for my money, no one did it as successfully as Chaplin.

The four films in this collection represent a sizable range. The comedy is astonishing, of course, but so is the amount of emotion. Watching them all in a short space of time really highlights Chaplin's strengths as a director. I love the way he lets people's faces tell the story; no overuse of dialog cards is required. Look at the scene in MODERN TIMES where the unemployed father wonders how he will feed his children. The camera lingers on his face, which tells everything. Or look at the New Year's Eve sequence in GOLD RUSH where the lonely tramp gazes upon the happy expressions of the partygoers. It's touching and is played flawlessly.

One of the great things about this set is that three out of four of the movies contain, if not outright sound, a synchronized soundtrack (and even THE GOLD RUSH contains a "sound" version that Chaplin dubbed for the 1942 re-release). Speech isn't the thing to note here -- it's the music. Chaplin's musical abilities are often forgotten about in lieu of his acting/pantomiming, writing and directing skills. But just listen to the soundtrack to something like MODERN TIMES. It's catchy, funny, and fits each scene perfectly. Wonderful.

Each of these four movies has been restored so the picture and sound quality are excellent. Out of this set, the big revelation for me was seeing the original version of THE GOLD RUSH for the first time uncut and with the picture in decent shape. Jokes that I had missed before were suddenly revealed, and I got to appreciate some gags that the previous poor picture quality had hidden.

The DVD extras are fantastic (each individual movie also comes with an entire second disc with nothing but special features). Deleted scenes are included, as are theatrical trailers (most of which are from later re-releases of the films). But the best features are the mini-documentaries included with each movie. They're quite good managing to maintain a good balance between interview footage and modern interpretation.

This set is invaluable for Chaplin fans. Chaplin was a genius of filmmaking and his movies finally have the release that they deserve. I'm now eagerly looking forward to delving through the second box set in this Chaplin DVD series, and I can only hope that it's as brilliant as this one is.

5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding!!!! A Must Own Collection! July 10, 2003
10 out of 12 found this review helpful

This collection on DVD is long overdue! For years Chaplin fans have been subjected to poor quality, public domain copies of his classic films on video/DVD that have diminished the impact of his work on the contemporary era of film. Finally, his films are being restored, and this collection demonstrates that they have never looked better!

I would rate Modern Times, The Gold Rush and the Great Dictator as the best of this first volume release. There are many detractors of Limelight, and its certainly not his best work, but it is a must have for fans and completists. The restoration work is outstanding and the extras are top notch. Do yourself a favour and purchase the collection, its cheaper than buying the single titles.

A must have for any serious DVD collector, cinemafile or Chaplin fan....we've waited a long time for this! Don't miss out on the opportunity to share this collection with a new generation of Chaplin fanatics! A top pick for classic re-release on DVD for 2003....enjoy!!

Powered by Associate-O-Matic

T-shirts, Posters

Pentagram T-shirts, bags, etc...

Gothic Posters